11

Oct 2012

Every Run Is A Lesson

This comment helped me immesenly today after feeling like a failure because I could not muster up the energy to get up and run at the insane hour of the morning my alarm goes off. I reasoned with myself that maybe marathoning just wasn’t my thing anymore and that maybe just maybe I should step back the distance so I didn’t have to run as often.

I tried to enjoy the morning with the boys and not think about running. Before lunch I had the opportunity to go on a solo run. Even though I didn’t feel strong or particulary speedy I set off to run an easy 6.

After hitting a miles in the 7’s on the second mile I decided to attempt a tempo run with 3 miles at tempo pace. It wasn’t the fastest run ever but I am pretty proud of it. Proud of it because hours earlier I was feeling WEAK.

Mile 1: 8:23

Mile 2: 7:36

Mile 3: 7:52

Mile 4: 6:37

Mile 5: 6:29

Mile 6: 6:24

Mile 7: 8:31

Running seems to always feel like a roller coaster to me. One day on top of the world – then next day barely slogging through the miles. I think that is part of the beauty of it. Every run is NOT great and some of them are downright crappy but in the end I never regret running. ever.

Comments

3 miles in the 6’s on a weak day is just flat out awesome! Especially after having such an awesome long run just a few days ago! Think about how far you have come from when you started running! And remember that sometimes life and kids just zap your energy…at least mine do :)! Sometimes it is nice to just forget about the time and enjoy the run! You are totally to do awesome in NYC! Keep it up!

Running IS a roller coaster for me too! Monday’s run was amazing- felt like I was flying and could have kept going forever, and yesterday was terrible and everything felt bad. But it only makes me want to get out there again to redeem myself and have another awesome run!

You’re killing it with your training and are such an inspiration!!! And apparently an awesome coach too! Congrats and yay, Jocelyn!!

Goodness gracious. If I wasn’t already bursting with gratitude, I sure am now. Thank you for this. Inspiration is always, ALWAYS a two way street. I will now smile my way through the rest of this week and well into the next. xo

Thank you for this, I tend to beat myself up for the bad runs, especially with this bad pain in my shoulder/neck from sleeping wrong, I haven’t been able to run let alone turn my neck. I told myself no matter how sore my neck was tonight, I was going to run, I need it.

Dorothy, you are a strong athlete, when I read your blog, it helps me power through my runs. Thank you for being an inspiration.

Today I did my first long run in over a month and while I felt great, my pace was a lot slower than it was last long run, and I’ve been feeling slow ever since getting over my sinus infection about a week ago. I looked in my journal and saw that I ran 8 miles (not a “long run” but a comparable distance) on September 1st at 8:11 average pace, and tonight my 10 miles averaged 9:44. I got really discouraged because I don’t remember the 8-mile run feeling hard at all, and I’m still looking for the lesson in today’s run. Maybe that I need to do long runs consistently again to get my speed back? Maybe the lesson is that sometimes life gets in the way and it’s okay not to perform at 100% all the time. I don’t know. Anyway, this post is helpful in me trying to feel less discouraged about today’s run and my performance all this past week. I just feel like I got sick, took a couple easy weeks, and now I’m just as slow as I was in March.

I have learned so much from you this week on not only how to deal with bad long runs but how to remember why we all train for marathons – because we love to run. So grateful to have you as my coach! Thanks for always inspiring me to go that extra step and have a little faith And always remember – never beat yourself up over running. That takes the fun out of it. And yes, I need to take my own advice!

You always inspire me girl!! And i have to say one of the reasons is because you are so REAL! You slog through those miles and it might suck but you still do it b/c like you said you know you won’t regret it! You go girl!

This is so true, but so hard to remember. I ran a (very) small town 5k this morning, a week after PRing a half marathon. It was the worst 5K I’ve ever run, my calves cramped up and I could barely make it, but I still won my age group. I realized that even a bad run makes you stronger than staying in bed on a Saturday morning! Thanks for the inspiration!!

Okay – from a fairly newbie runner – don’t ever think you’re not doing what you should be doing. Everybody feels that way and YOU run pushing three children a lot of the time. Your followers think YOU ROCK !!!